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Topic: Slow WAN Performance ERS 5520 (Read 2902 times)

Hey everyone. I have an issue that I have experienced before, and unfortunately we had to swap out the hardware to a different manufacturer to resolve.

I have an ERS 5520 running 6.2.4 of the firmware. All of our Nortel/Avaya 5520s are running that version.

What happens is, over a WAN link (lan extension or MPLS), the inbound speed is very slow. For example, in one direction (outbound) it is 10Mbps (maximum speed). Inbound it averages 2Mbps, but it is supposed to be 10Mbps both directions. UDP transfers are even worse (1Mbps). No errors on any of the ports.

We are using a voice vlan, but with my previous time experiencing this issue, it did not have any voice vlan configured. It's a relatively default setup in this case with ip routing enabled.

If anyone has any suggestions or some place I can check to resolve this, please let me know.

First thing would be to look at newer code on your switches. v6.2.4 came out back in 2011 and is very out of date with fixes and features. v6.2.5 was a major rewrite of a lot of the ERS5000's functions and v6.2.8 was the last version in the 6.2 code stream. Otherwise what you describe I would normally be suspicious of a mismatch (one side auto, one side forced) or incompatible autonegotiation between devices. Use to happen a lot with Cisco devices and Nortel/Avaya equipment. Did you try forcing both side to say 100/Full?

Thanks Telair. Unfortunately I don't control the other equipment (it's our provider's equipment). I have forced my side to 100/Full but unfortunately that is the best I can do. I will try getting them to force it to 100/Full as well.

I do have a couple of switches with 6.3.3 on them. I may try configuring one of them and sending it to the remote site where the connection is. It would be faster than having our provider change their side. They could take weeks.

I have to deal with 3rd party providers as well. I usually ask them what their port is set to and just match it on our end. In the case of them setting their port to auto, I ask them what it negotiated to so I can compare it with my end when it's set to auto. Found a few time when both ports are set auto/auto that one side comes up 100/Full and the other 100/Half. Or add odd time or two when the ports would seemingly randomly disconnect and renegotiate causing a second or two break in the link. Weird stuff. So these days I like to ask them to force it to 100/Full and I force mine to 100/Full and life goes on.

I have asked them this info but it could take either hours or days to get a response.

I will wait and see what they say. I've had this problem with these same switches on WAN links before. Never a proper resolution. Always told to go get Cisco gear. It does resolve the problem, but I'd like to not have to do that.

Change the port to auto-negotiate-advertisements 10-half 100-full, then speed auto, duplex auto. If the port comes up at 100-full, then they are configured for auto. If it doesn't come up, then lock your port down at 100-full. Speed is always negotiated first, but if duplex is locked on one side, it defaults to half-duplex. With your not advertising 100-half, you can troubleshoot their connectivity settings quickly.

I was wrong when I said it was the download that was the problem. It was actually the upload speed that is the problem. Can't believe I screwed that up. What I have noticed is that if I use multiple threads, I can get 10Mbit both directions, but if I use 1 thread, download speed is around 10Mbit, but upload speed is 2Mbit.

For my other connections (100Mbit, and 40Mbit), my testing has shown that downloading is around 90% of the rated speed, but uploading to those sites is around 50% of the speed.

My providers tells me that, for example, it's 100Mbit in total, not bidirectional. It is a MPLS connection and I have worked with them a few times but getting calls back from them is now becoming impossible. They told me they are seeing the transfers working at 100%. I don't believe that at all.